Taking over me
by regie27
Summary: After her Commander was slain before her own eyes, Elite Guard Lieutenant Limelda Jorg swore she would find and defeat the agent responsible. Little did she suspect how much that chance encounter would change her life.


**Taking over me**  
A Madlax fanfiction by regie27  
Standard Disclaimers apply

"_I look in the mirror and see your face  
if I look deep enough  
so many things inside that are  
just__like you are taking over"_

_Taking over me by Evanescence_

The roar of RPGs and mortars exploding in the distance reaches my fine-tuned ear. I'm well accustomed to those sounds. In fact, I admit part of me used to miss them when I didn't hear them for too long. Those are the sounds of war, of the civil war that has been tearing this country apart for twelve years. After all, the civil war has sustained me. In a twisted sense, this war is my maker and my master. Lieutenant Limelda Jorg, the Elite Guard sniper extraordinaire wouldn't even exist without the ceaseless bloodletting this country has been inflicting to itself. Without a war, there would be no need for me and my skills. This war begot me, nurtured me, shaped me into what I am. "Into what I used to be," I correct myself mentally as I glance at my companion while we both scan what lays beyond the pillars of smoke and the flashes of gunfire that shimmer from the depths of the jungle like fireflies in the dark of the night.

The smell of smoke and fire carried by a strong gust of wind reaches my nostrils. This is indeed the most dangerous zone of this bloody, relentless conflict. The Gazth-Sonika Kingdom Army and Galza have littered these jungles with so many dead, their bodies pile up before they can be recovered and so the unfortunate that have been left behind end up serving as sustenance for the vultures and for the thick jungle itself. Their blood, sweat and tears have drenched the soil of these cursed lands so much the trees are beginning to acquire shades of crimson beneath the brown bark. I wouldn't be surprised to realize that instead of salvia, these trees would ooze blood.

I am restless. This is a confession that I find hard to admit yet it is the truth of this new me. Before, I had learned that patience was the best ally in my line of work. I had learned to lay low, without even moving so slightly a muscle, as I monitored my target until the moment was prime for me to squeeze the trigger. I had even taught myself to control my breathing and heartbeats to mask my presence as if I were a wraith, blending with the surroundings, lurking in the shadows. I had acquired a control over my own body so complete that it had been deemed almost inhuman. Maybe that's why so many feared me instead of admire me. I wasn't human, I was a machine, cold and efficient and remorseless. Snipers are handed the ugly task of personifying the grim reaper in human form. It's such hypocrisy. We are indispensable for the army yet we are seldom celebrated by it. People mistakenly believe the grunts admire those who are good shots, but such is not the case with snipers. We are a class of our own, more outcasts than elite forces. Regular soldiers dream of achieving glory in the battlefield with outdated notions of the past, of gallant charges and heroic deeds that get rewarded by medals and recognition. Even with the technological advantages of modern weaponry and state of the art communications, the average soldier dreams of a heroic fight to the last man, of a showdown that pits man against man until only one is left standing. For those soldiers, what I do is an aberration, a taint to their ideals of honor and heroism. They wish to fight in the open. I hide in the darkness. They work in groups, their confidence based on numbers more than on their individual skills. I stalk alone as I wait patiently until I have my prey on the crosshairs of my sight. They want their fallen foes to know who dealt their death hand. My victims never know what hit them.

Tonight I'm restless and I know who to blame for that. It is the same person I've been blaming for the changes within me, for introducing disappointment into my life, for the insanity that overwhelmed my life with a single intent: to kill her. To annihilate the one who had single-handedly turned my life upside down. The same individual who had held my existence in the scales and had always chose to tip it to the side of life. That always enraged and confused me. I knew all too well she was skilled, as skilled as me and perhaps even more in the arts of death-dealing yet she refused to pass judgment on my life with a bullet.

"Madlax" I whisper her name. The one I once wished she were my executioner but instead became my savior.

I should be dead by all accounts. She should have killed me long ago. So may wasted chances when she could have easily disposed of me. Yet somehow I survived. I managed to escape with my life but my pride was hurt every instance we met that I couldn't kill her. I couldn't stand it and I even believed it was her idea of torture. She must have known I would not cease in my pursuit until I killed her but she didn't seem to care and my rage would keep on building because I hated to be defeated but I hated even more being underestimated, or was it even pity? My madness grew out of control and the truth I learned about this war from her did little to calm my insanity. On the contrary, it grew, because my life had been stripped completely of any meaning and the only objective I had left was the challenge that it had been tossed to me the day Commander Guen MacNichol died.

I can still picture myself the day I learned the truth about this war. It was as if a veil that had shrouded me for the longest time had been yanked off forcefully, revealing the world I thought I knew in all its ugly reality, the deception that had been my existence exposed painfully right in front of me. I did not take well the fact that after all my efforts, I was just a mere pawn to be used at will by those who held the reins of true power. I lashed out of pain, of anger, because I resented the fact that my ideals, what I had believed all my life were just a travesty, and I sunk into a murderous rampage that left my former CO and many comrades dead in my wake. The only thing that remained true after this revelation was her. Madlax was the only thing that was real in a world of mirrors and deception. That's why I had a death wish. I just couldn't bear it anymore, my pride wouldn't allow it, the fact that I had failed in the only thing I knew how to do and that my whole life had been nothing but a farce.

The whir of helicopter rotors in the distance pulls me out of my reverie and my hands tighten around my rifle out of pure instinct. The white-haired girl beside me scouts the sky as if looking for a signal. I know that look. She is expecting something but what I wonder. What I do notice is that the fight hasn't relented with the arrival of the night but it has actually become more intense with each passing hour. What is driving both factions this eerie night to fight with all they have? What madness has taken over the hearts of men tonight?

"It's about time" I hear my companion say. "The Door of the Era will soon be opened by Margaret Burton and from then on, nothing will remain the same."

Her strange talk doesn't seem to make sense to me but I pick up a change in the wind. Overhead, a red full moon hangs ominously and I wonder if Madlax will make it out of whatever is about to happen. I have seen her defy fate over and over but the cold shiver that runs down my spine tells me that this is no ordinary night and whatever lies ahead might prove too much, even for her. This jungle has already swallowed countless lives and I had to almost add myself to the statistics but the bullet I bit didn't come from Madlax' barrel but from her friend, the one I killed.

Killing people wasn't new to me. It was my livelihood and I had excelled on it, but I know this death was different. I hadn't even intended for her to die when my finger squeezed the trigger as I took her bullet but it happened anyway. It was through her, Vanessa Rene, that I was able to find out the truth. It was also her who kept interfering between Madlax and I. Back then, I couldn't understand what she had meant when she said the Vanessa was the one protecting her instead of the other way around as I had thought. In the end, it had turned out to be exactly as she had said. Vanessa gave her life to save Madlax from me, from my insanity, and she was the one who had to pay the ultimate price. And so I waited for Madlax to exact retribution for her fallen friend but it never came. I had wished to be released from the agony that was swallowing me inside, from the pain and the hatred and the guilt. Instead, when we met again with an exchange of fire, Madlax made a request that threw me completely off balance:

"I have a favor to ask. Watch over me. I want you to remember an existence called I. Don't forget about me. Please, Limelda Jorg. Let me be inside you."

And so that's why I'm here, waiting in the shadows, released by those words from my obsession, savoring my own existence as I vow to never forget about hers. How could I when she has given me the gift of freedom?

Suddenly, I sense the temperature rising, as if the whole jungle were about to simmer. The crimson moon glimmers with an ominous light and the jungle becomes unnaturally silent. All fighting has ceased but no one has ordered a cease of fire. Why stop all of a sudden when the slaughter had been so relentless tonight?

The sky transfigures into a kaleidoscope of colors. I sense Nahal tensing beside me in expectation. Is this was she had meant with the changing of the Era? And then, breaking the oppressive silence I hear them. I can hear the voices, voices that speak in a language foreign to me yet but so seductive and I'm unable to ignore them for too long. Their pull is akin to the chant of the fabled mermaids and I fear they will take my to my doom just as well. My body slumps heavily downwards. My knees connect to the ground as I sunk into a trance that spins my senses out of control.

"_Elda…Taluta."_

Primal urges begin to rise uncontrollably from the dark confines of my soul. I attempt to resist but my defenses are easily overrun. After all, I've lived all my life in the dark so why should I resist the call to let it all out?

"_Sarkus…Sark."_

Shadows encroach over the last vestiges of my sanity. The flash of a blade breaks the pitch-black darkness as it traces a path before my eyes.

"_Ark…Arks."_

My hand lifts my weapon and I feel compelled by the voices inside my head to point the barrel of my rifle towards my companion, but before I'm able to do anything, my conscience spirals into a void…

"Madlax, is this the death I longed for so much… at last…?"

* * *

I open up my eyes and the first thing I sense is the surge of dull pain that runs all over my head. My hands dig beneath my black hair and I sense a bump over my scalp. I yelp, the skin of my scalp still very much sore and tender. I feel heavy, as if I had been submitted to turmoil yet I don't sense any discomfort in my body that speaks of a battle other than the wounds I have been collecting from my fights against Madlax. I can't hide a smile as I notice the twin cuts above my shoulders. They remind of the last words I exchanged with Madlax and of the promise I made. My body suddenly tenses. I can sense a presence close to me but I don't feel threatened by it and before I can do anything but glance upwards, I see a pair of purple eyes watching me in amusement. My heart skips a beat.

"I'm glad you've finally back to your senses. It was getting boring to watch you sleep. Seems you found yourself a comfy spot in this hard ground eh?"

I blink several times before reality sinks in.

"Madlax!" I exclaim. A sense of utter relief washes over me as the girl I used to call my enemy approaches me.

"That's me." She replies with one of her trademark impish grins I've come to love so much. "I'm glad you haven't forgotten about me. Say, now that you're back on your feet, how about we climb on your jeep and head towards somewhere safer. This place is a powder keg and will begin exploding anytime soon." She motions with her hand to the dark spots in the sky that begin to close in on our position. I bet they're Kingdom army helicopters ready to raid Galza positions.

I nod silently as I climb with her into the jeep. My mind still wonders how I ended up face down on the cold soil with a lump on my head but for now, I'm rejoice in the fact that Madlax has made it back. I'll have plenty of time to find out what happened last night that seemed to have brought upon a significant albeit almost imperceptible change to this land plagued by war and hatred. I'm just glad she is still alive. I'm just glad that she has returned to me. We both board the jeep and soon we make our escape from the upcoming battle that is about to begin.

"Limelda"

"Yes?"

She lifts up her head, allowing the wind to blow through her dark blonde hair. "Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to exist within you."

I reply with a smile as we head out without a specific direction. As I watch her from the corner of my eye while I drive, I smile inwardly. Perhaps not today, maybe not even tomorrow but I know one day I will be able to tell her the truth. That it is her existence that allows me to live on.

"Perhaps then, you'll allow me to live inside you too."

_Fin_

_Author's Notes:_

After being blown away by this awesome series, I knew I wanted to write something. I'm still amazed that there aren't that many Madlax fanfics because the wealth of themes to explore and the richness of their characters alone can provide so much material for the writers to explore. I was particulalry taken by sniper extraordinaire Limelda Jorg and that's how this fic came to be. Hopefully, this will not be my only contribution to the fandom.

Special thanks to my patient beta-reader Carrie Asagiri for putting up with my constant rewrites. Honestly, I really don't know how she can! xD _  
_


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